Review Nungwi Dreams by Mantis - Zanzibar

First time in a Mantis hotel. I spent 7 nights, starting just after Christmas, in this very nice resort. In current Covid times, you need to be creative to find a nice place to spend vacations during the northern winter in a country with no or minor restrictions. Tanzania is one of those rare places : country is totally open (at least to Europeans), no need for PCR test at entry/exit (unless your airline or country of destination requires one), no quarantine. KLM recently launched a new triangular service AMS-ZNZ-DAR-AMS  twice a week, so it makes it easy to reach from France. And, frankly, this was a great idea to go there, with the very depressing atmosphere we have in Europe for months on top of the cold and bad winter weather. And ZNZ is a superb destination with very nice people, so a nice discovery. I was not the only one to have this idea. Most of hotels on the island were full. Lot of Russians, but I saw a lot of French people also.

This Mantis hotel is the only Accor option around. It is located in Nungwi, at the north point of Zanzibar island, about 90 min drive from the airport and Stone Town (also known as Zanzibar town). I booked a pre-paid stay (back in October), refundable until D-1, and was quickly contacted by the central reservation office of Mantis in South Africa to organize the pre-payment as they are not yet integrated in Accor systems and they could not process my CC. They propose you either a bank transfer or through a system like PayPal. Not so cool to have to do this, but I didn’t have the choice. I have to say that they kindly accepted to hold the booking without pre-payment during one month because I wanted to see what would be the evolution of the pandemic in France and the 2nd full locking that was arriving on the radar. When I was sure that we would be unlocked mid-december, I made the pre-payment.

I arranged transportation from the airport with the hotel. Checked-in late (around midnight) by a very welcoming employee. I had booked a sea view room and I was not expecting any upgrade because I think I booked the last room back in October and the hotel was appearing full since that. It’s a relatively small hotel (around 20 rooms), but they are extending it (construction is on-going). You don’t really feel at Accor in those brands that joined the group recently (the only Accor sign were the flyers for ALL on the front desk). But the Accor drink voucher was given upfront. She said that the restaurant was closed at that time and that they prepared some sandwiches in case I would be hungry. That was a very nice attention. The sandwiches and a fruit platter were delivered in the room within 10 minutes.

All the staff was very nice and caring. The GM is very present from morning to evening and he is making sure you’re enjoying your stay. He and one of the check-in staff member were very helpful to help me solve a problem and I sincerely thank them for this.

As you can see, the room was very large with a balcony and a superb view on the lagoon. Amenities in the room were kettle with instant coffee, tea bags, free minibar (soft drinks), safety box, slippers (but no bathrobe). Not a lot of plugs but enough and several USB ports which were nice to have. Unfortunately, the wifi was very weak in the room. Definitely an improvement needed. Overall the wifi was not so great in the hotel. But we have to remember that we are in Africa. Bed was comfortable. You hear clearly at night the noise of the waves at high tide. It has its charm but I had sometimes to put earplugs as sometimes the noise was strong and waking me up.

Housekeeping was so-so. Not in term of cleanliness (everything was always very clean, which is the most important thing), but on 3 occasions, the room was made only around 5 pm which was late and you could feel it was made in a rush as some housekeeping items were forgotten in the room or water bottles were not replaced. No big deal, but still…

The pool is just above the beach. The small size of then hotel makes it nice because no crowd. There is a bar at the pool, serving also food from the restaurant (same menu). You can see here pictures of various places of the resort and of the beach at low and high tides.

The beach is not private, but never crowded as it is large. Toward the end of the afternoon, the locals, adults and children, come to the beach to enjoy it.

The resort from the beach (on the 2nd picture below, this is the Presidential Villa. It has its own small pool and private rooftop):

There is one restaurant in the hotel, where you have breakfast, lunch and dinner. Lunch can be taken at the pool also as said above. There is a bar on the rooftop. This is in the main building at the entrance (front desk on ground floor, restaurant on 2nd floor, bar on the roof).

Room service is available.

Food is very good, but I can say the same of the meals I had on the island outside the hotel. The hotel is not located in Nungwi village but about 1 km from it (walkable during the day), so you are completely captive at night unless you have a car or a driver). Menu is changing every evening for dinner.

On 31/12 for dinner, they organized a nice buffet on the beach

Overall, a great stay with great weather (30°C) in a very nice island. The best to recharge the batteries before returning to the reality of the pandemic in western Europe.

Points were posted after 4 days, but the amount is incorrect and I need now to make a retroclaim